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Freeman Speaks Of “Triple-Teaming” Williams

September 22nd, 2011

Thanks to Arrelious Benn’s illegal motion penalty, Mike Williams had a brilliant touchdown catch called back Sunday and finished with one reception for -4 yards.

Sure, the Bucs could, and probably should, call more slants to force the ball into Williams hands, but Josh Freeman explains that defenses are keying on Williams and forcing him to look elsewhere. Last night on WDAE-AM 620, Freeman told a caller to The Josh Freeman Show what’s not being seen on television.

“It’s not anything with me and Mike aren’t on the same page,” Freeman said. ” The defenses know that Mike’s a good receiver. You know, so they’re rolling a lot of coverages to Mike. They’re trying to double team Mike. They’re trying to take Mike out of the game completely. And, when that’s the case, you can’t try to force it to Mike or you’re going to get incompletions, you’re going to get interceptions, bad things are going to happen trying to throw into coverage.

“That’s something nobody sees, they don’t see that they’re putting a cloud corner and a safety over the top with linebacker help, basically triple-teaming, double-teaming Mike on every play. … It’s really tough to get anything.

“So how do you combat it? You spread the ball around. You show teams that, ‘Ok. Take away our No. 1, and we’ve got No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and some got some great tight ends to throw to. So you guys are going to have to change that up or we’re going to keep getting you.'”

None of this is surprising. There’s a reason Williams’ peers voted him the 80th best player in the NFL. Plus, Arrelious Benn has a lot to prove before defenses show him anything close to the respect Williams is garnering.

Joe’s not concerned. If the Bucs can rack up 24 points in a half like they did Sunday, there’s surely enough firepower out there.

10 Responses to “Freeman Speaks Of “Triple-Teaming” Williams”

Joe, the game plan has to change to score lots of points in the first half, expect Mike to be triple teamed and someone has to be open that can catch the ball. Or spread them all out and turn lose the “Cannon” Blount.

This is absolutely correct. They have to spread the ball around to move the coverages off of Williams. The other thing is, I saw them throw the slant to Mike last week, the CB was on him like a glove to shut that down knowing he had help over the top. That’s when it’s time to exploit the coverage over the top. That’s when it’s time to run the sluggo route. The slant and go. Get the CB hitting that slant route and end up with one on one with a Safety deep, or at worst double coverage by a LB and a Safety. Williams can beat that. If the slant is covered, hit the sluggo route. A quick pump fake off the snap by Free should get the CB to bite, then it’s all up to Williams to go get the ball.

Dear Josh Freeman and Bucs Organization…if you guys believe that Mike Williams is attracting triple coverage, that means that someone should be WIDE open…please look at the game film and find that person. Thanks for your time..that is all!

Spreading it around is exactly what they started doing in the second half in Minnesota. I’m surprised it took them six quarters to finally adjust. In the first six quarters of the season you could see Freeman looking for Williams first on almost every play, waiting for him to get open, holding the ball too long because of it and then ending up hurried or sacked. It was frustrating to watch.

This offense is young but they are deep with passing targets. The comment above about becoming more like Brees (having no preference for receivers except for whoever is open) is right on. Freeman needs to progress past Williams much faster and onto his second, third or even fourth options. If they do this against Atlanta we may just have a chance to win it.